Library Video of the Week, January 21, 2013.

Tears of the Sun, starring Bruce Willis, Monica Belluci, Cole Hauser, Eammon Walker.  Directed by Antoine Fuqua. 2003. Library Call Number: PN1995.9.W3T43 2005.
          Critics weren’t kind to this movie when it came out, for some reason.  Maybe it seemed too dark, or disjointed.  Certainly there is a sharp break from the beginning half of the movie to the battles at the end.  Willis stars as Lieutenant Waters, a Navy SEAL who leads his team into the Nigerian jungle to save four American doctors and nurses from being killed by one side of a raging civil war.  The doctor, however, won’t go without her patients, so the SEALs involuntarily force her and the others onto the helicopter for extraction.
On the way out, Waters sees the advancing army burning and murdering as it comes.  Suffering a sudden pang of conscience, he decides to do the right thing, turns the helicopters around and lands to protect the 70 or so refugees from the hospital.  His superiors, however, will not send the copters back, forcing the SEALs, the American medical staff and the refugees to flee on foot to safety in Cameroon, pursued by an overwhelming force.  The dialog might be standard and the battles seem like Hollywood intruding on a thoughtful movie, but the tone and scenes, the camera-work and the emotional weight of the characters are all remarkable

Library Video of the Week, January 23, 2012

Kingdom of War, parts 1 and 2, starring Sarunyu Wongkrachang and Sorapong Chatree, directed by Chatreechalerm Yukol. 2006. (Thai with English subtitles.)  Library Call Number: PN1995.9.F67K56 2011.                                            

     One of the few movies out of Thailand to make a splash, Kingdom of War is a grand epic biopic about King Naresuan, who won Siamese independence from Burma in the 16^th century.  With vivid color, breathtaking cityscapes and large battle re-enactments, Kingdom of War requires some patience in Part 1, as it provides background on the intricate and devious politics of the times. With the region divided into dozens of small kingdoms, each ruler is trying to topple their Burmese conqueror and establish their own empire.  When King Bayinnaung overcomes the Siamese kingdom of Ayudtthaya, he takes the nine year-old Prince Naresuan as hostage, insuring his father’s kingdom remains loyal. The King sends the boy to live and study with a Buddhist monk, where the Prince learns martial arts and politics in equal measure.  Naresuan befriends two orphans living with the monk, who eventually become his Princess and his general, while making an enemy of the King’s sons.  Part 2 begins with the death of Bayinnaung, the succession of his son, who hasn’t forgotten or forgiven Naresuan and sends him to enforce the Burmese sovereignty over a mountain kingdom in revolt, while laying an ambush.  When Naresuan escapes, he prepares his first epic battle with the Burmese.

Library Video of the Week, May 9, 2011.

The Children of Huang Shi, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode. 2009.  Library Call Number: PN1995.9.C47C45 2009.
     One of the many virtually unknown gems released in recent years, this film—set in 1937 China and based on a true story--revolves around George Hogg (Meyers), an ambitious British journalist, who sneaks into Nanjing as the Japanese are desolating it. Captured and tortured by the Japanese, he is saved from certain death by a Chinese rebel (Chow Yun Fat) and flees with him into the interior of China, ambitiously seeking to find another story that will bring him fame.
     Instead, his friend talks him into taking control of a leaderless orphanage and 60 feral young boys. With the help of a traveling, war-weary Australian nurse (Mitchell), Hogg reluctantly tends the boys until the Japanese near the valley. Pressured by the Chinese army to turn the boys over to them as soldiers, Hogg instead packs them up and flees, taking his wards 500 miles over the Silk Road and the Liu Pan Shan Mountains into the Gobi Desert and safety, with the help of his friend, the nurse and a former aristocrat turned opium smuggler. The movie chronicles a dark period of world history and—in Schindler-like fashion—finds some light.

Library Video of the Week, April 25, 2011.

Restrepo: One Platoon, One Valley, One Year, a documentary directed and produced by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger. An Outpost Films production in association with National Geographic Channel. Library Call Number: DS371.4123.K67R47 2010.
          Anyone wanting a better understanding of the trials of our military in Afghanistan should spend an hour and a half with this documentary. Charged with maintaining calm in a part of the Korengal Valley, a fifteen-man platoon of U.S. soldiers from the 173rd Airborne is deployed to a remote outpost called “Restrepo," named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. As the product description says, “It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats. The only goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 90-minute deployment. This is war, full stop. The conclusions are up to you.”
          Adding to the poignancy of this film, Tim Hetherington, the co-director and co-producer, was recently killed while covering the Libyan fighting.

Library Videos of the Week, February 28, 2011.

The Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry, a Reel Deal Productions film for American Experience; produced and directed by Jacqueline Shearer; narrated by Morgan Freeman. Story by Jacqueline Shearer.
Library Call Number: E540.N3 M37 2006.
     The American Experience presents the true story of one of the first African-American regiments fighting in the Civil War. Formed in Boston, Massachusetts, under the direction of white officers, the 54th earned fame in the futile attack on Fort Wagner, one of the Confederate army’s strongholds along the South Carolina coast. Through early photos, painting, dramatic readings from diaries and newspaper accounts, the film documents the true, heroic and tragic story of the 54th’s part in the fight for Union.  Look for this video in the 5th floor collection.

Glory, starring Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, Andre Braugher and Denzel Washington, directed by Edward Zwick.
Library Call Number: E656 .G66 2000.
      The drama based on the 54th stars Broderick as Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, a son of prominent abolitionists, who volunteers to lead one of the Union’s 1sr black regiments, though he is told the enemy have orders to kill white officers of black troops on sight. Taking a raw group of runaway slaves and freedmen, Shaw and his Sergeant train the 54th into a fighting unit fighting the bigotry of the enemy and his own army. Superb performances by Broderick and Andre Braugher as his lifetime friend, Thomas, are overshadowed by the rock-solid Morgan Freeman as the Sergeant Major of the unit and Oscar-winning Denzel Washington as an escaped slave turned Union soldier.                                                                Look for this video soon in the 4th floor Browsing collection.